ASPR Journal, V14 - Iapsop.com

108 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research •
•
of these dreams I can prove by witnesses outside of my family.
Some dreams I can not, but the dreams I can prove ought (and I
think they would) be a satisfactory proof for reasonable minds of
the other. I will cite only one dream of a great many.
I had a very vivid plain dream of a railway wreck in view of
the house. After the dream I could not sleep. I felt greatly
troubled. As soon as daylight [came] I went over where I dreamed
the wreck was and found as I expected that both clasps that make
the continuous rail broken clear off at the joint making practically
a broken rail.
I notified the G. and N. R. R. Co. and they put on new clasps,
without doubt, by so doing, escaping a disaster.
This is only one of a great many. My dreams have been those
mostly that can only be accounted for by admitting that they must
come from a spirit source.
Anything I can do to aid you in your work will be done. These
visions that we get are only broken threads from the other world.
In haste,
GEORGE H. TAFT.
This letter evidently elicited a request from Dr. Hodgson and
on December 11th, Mr. Taft wrote a postal card telling of illness
and giving a promise that he would give an account of his
dreams with independent testimony regarding them. On the
next day he began the narrative which is as follows, omitting in
its order the one already quoted above. The first is a corroborative
statement about the broken clasps on the railway.
But before writing the postal card announcing what he intended
to do, Mr. Taft had written some short accounts of
dreams on the date of December Sth, 1904. The first contains
more details about the dream regarding the broken clasps.
WEsT UPTON, Dec. 5th, 1904.
MR. HoDGsoN,
DEAR SIR : About the R. R. clasps referred to in your letter
of December 2nd, 1904. My wife knew that I had had a dream
that troubled me before I went and found the broken clasps. When
I returned I went directly to a Mr. Fay (one of my neighbors),
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